The University of Otago Library has re-designed its Subject Guides system. Please let us know what you think by filling out this survey.
Subject headings are words or short phrases that are added to the records of every item in the database. Subject headings use a ‘controlled language’, meaning there is only one word or phrase used to describe a specific concept. In theory, this means that every reference discussing rehabilitation, for example, will have a subject heading related to rehabilitation. Searching using subject headings will retrieve references on a topic regardless of the wording used by individual authors. You can often type in the brand names of drugs and Embase will find the corresponding generic drug name.
Using the Explode and/or Focus functions with your subject headings may give your search results more relevance.
If you can’t find a subject heading to match your search term(s) using the instructions below, try again using some synonyms.
If that does not work, search by keyword instead.
For your chosen heading(s), you have the option to Explode the heading(s), Focus the heading(s), or both.
Depending on your selections, you may be taken to a list of Subheadings.
We recommend clicking Continue here without selecting any of the subheadings . This will automatically include all references that have your chosen subject heading(s).
Choosing any subheading rules out any references that have no subheadings at all, as well as potentially relevant references with different subheadings. For this reason, we generally advise not to use them.